Seemingly afloat in midair, with its windblown drapery, this angel once graced the voussoir, or wedge-shaped stone, set in an arch of the portal on the north transept of the cathedral dedicated to Saint Lazarus in Autun. The angel’s attention originally was focused on the scene of Jesus raising Lazarus—patron saint of the cathedral—from the dead, depicted in the tympanum centered over the doorway. The angel is one of a handful of physical remains of the twelfth-century portal, which was replaced with a Baroque doorway in 1776. The main entrance of the cathedral is carved with the name Gislebertus, believed to be the principal author of the sculptural program.

Forsyth, William Holmes, and The International Confederation of Dealers in Works of Art. "Acquisitions from the Brummer Gallery." In The Grand Gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Sixth International Exhibition presented by C.I.N.O.A.. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974. p. 4.

Stratford, Neil. "Autun." Bulletin Monumental 134 (1976). p. 58.

Young, Bonnie. A Walk Through The Cloisters. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979. p. 38.

Stoddard, Whitney S. Sculptors of the West Portals of Chartres Cathedral: Their Origins in Romanesque and their Role in Chartrain Sculpture; Including the West Portals of Saint-Denis and Chartres, Harvard, 1952. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1987. p. 202.

Little, Charles T. "From Cluny to Moutiers-Saint-Jean: The Origin of a Limestone Fragment of an Angel at The Cloisters." Gesta 27, nos. 1 and 2 (1988). p. 28, fig. 11.

Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. no. 8, pp. 33, 193.

Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. 75th Anniversary ed. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012. p. 31.